In theaters and other recreation areas where concessions are located, a person buying several items such as popcorn and a drink also picks up items such as napkins and toothpicks and it is difficult to carry all items in one hand. Attempts to satisfy such a problem have been made and those which are most acceptable require forming the holders into a box or tray and such holders often require use of both hands to avoid spilling or slopping the drink.
It was the intent in developing the present invention to provide an inexpensive, disposable holder which is very convenient to store, to contain several cups and to be carried in one hand, leaving the other hand of the customer free to pay or attend to other functions. It should not require much space when disposed.
The closest approach made by the prior art includes disposable flat cardboard holders which includes multiple openings of one or more size primarily to hold ice cream cones, pop bottles or cups. U.S. Pat. No. 1,469,596 to J. W. Hoodwin discloses one such type of tray and U.S. Pat. No. 1,702,199 to F. A. Cunningham discloses another type of tray. The Cunningham and Hoodwin patents indicate that such a flat tray can also be utilized as a fan. The Cunningham patent has radial serations around the openings which permit flexing of small fingers which tend to grip an item in the holder, a function which is found to be an inconvenience insofar as a holder for any type of drink is concerned. Both of these will flex too much with a drink filled cup. Two additional patents, U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,425 to E. W. Cobb for Cone, Beverage Cup and Similar Article Holder and U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,984 to F. W. Palm on Container Holder and Blank illustrate another approach to the problem of a disposable holder. However, these latter patents disclose holders with a circular hole in which to hold cups and furthermore, both of these patents have appurtenances integrally formed with the flat holder area punched from external portions of cardboard and bent down to form a handle, as in the Cobb patent, or bent upward with terminal hook lugs to enable hanging the holder on a window or the like as shown in the Palm patent. While such items do provide the convenience of relieving the user's hand for other functions, both constitute a more expensive disposable holder than that proposed by this invention.
Additional prior art patents which show tray-like holders are U.S. Pat. No. 2,556,844 to J. Istwan for Serving Tray and U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,225 to H. W. Clarke on Dish and Tray Combination. These prior art articles have a primary drawback of expense plus the undesired factor of large mass when disposed of, as compared with a flat collapsible holder.